Two bears crash wedding west of Boulder, get shot with bean bags

One of the wedding-crashing bears. (Photo courtesy of Deputy Phil Jarvis / Boulder County Sheriff's Office)

Two young bears showed up uninvited to a wedding west of Boulder on Saturday -- and left with non-lethal blows to the backside as party favors.

The bears, both thought to be about 3 years old and weighing roughly 350 pounds apiece, were spotted early Saturday afternoon on a ridge behind the Red Lion Inn, on Canyon Boulevard a little over a mile from Boulder's western city limit. Meanwhile, about 200 yards away, a couple was being married on the Red Lion's grassy outdoor event space.

"They were waiting for us to leave," said Boulder County sheriff's Deputy Phil Jarvis. "We were watching to see what they'd do."

At around 4:30, as the wedding crowd began to file out and Red Lion Inn workers started setting up for a second wedding, the bears made staggered advances.

"One of them stood up and started walking up the side of the ridge to come down to the parking lot," Jarvis said, adding that the bear was roughly 50 yards from the wedding group at that point. "So he stood nice and broadside for me, and I shot a bean bag at his hind rear quarter."

The first bear then ran off, and the second moved in.

"He gave me a nice broadside view, too, so I shot him with a bean bag," Jarvis said. "He went and joined the first bear and they took off running."

The deputy said it was for the bears' own good.

"When they're bold and getting too used to humans, we'll shoot them with a less lethal shotgun with the bean bags," Jarvis said. "Normally, they won't come back because they remember that.